Hundreds of social homes lost in Worksop and Retford over past decade

The figures come as housing charity Shelter urges the Government to invest in a new generation of “genuinely social housing”.

Department of Levelling Up, Housing and Communities data shows 40 social homes were built in Bassetlaw in the 10 years to March 2022, although none were built in the latest year.

Meanwhile, 441 social homes were sold and 68 demolished over the same period, meaning the area has lost 469 homes over the past decade.

Across England, 194,000 social homes were sold in the decade to March 2022, and 55,000 demolished.

Just 84,000 were built over the same period, resulting in a net loss of 165,000 social homes.

Polly Neate, Shelter chief executive, said the country is “firmly in the red” when it comes to its social housing stock.

“We lose far more homes than we build every year, and the losses are mounting up,” she said.

“The social housing deficit is at the heart of the housing emergency,

“The fundamental lack of genuinely affordable homes has pushed millions of people into insecure, expensive and often discriminatory private renting.”

DLUHC figures also show that as of March 2022, 1.2 million people were on local authority waiting lists for social housing across England, including 3,903 in Bassetlaw.

Ms Neate said: “The Government can’t afford to allow this decline to stretch into another decade if it has any hopes of meaningfully levelling up.

“Instead, it must invest in a new generation of the homes we really need – secure, genuinely social housing.”

Research by the Resolution Foundation think tank found nearly one in five social renters have fallen behind on their housing costs this winter.

Meanwhile nearly half of social renters, 48 per cent, reported being unable to afford to replace electrical goods, or switch the heating on when needed, the researchers found.

A DLUHC spokesman said: “Increasing the number of genuinely affordable homes is central to our levelling up mission.

“Since 2010, we have delivered more than 620,000 affordable homes in England, including more than 160,000 for social rent, but there is much more to do and that is why we’re investing £11.5 billion to build more of the affordable, quality homes this country needs.”